The Enemy
by NorwayInALittleHat
Summary: In a world free of adults and full of zombies, can the kids ban together and push through? Artemis and her big brother Roy meet up with a rather large group of surviving children, can they help save this group and save themselves as well? No powers, zombie AU. Slight Spitfire...for now. Rated T for blood, action, and language.
1. Bows And Arrows

**Warnings: Character deaths within. Gore and blood. Language. **

**Enjoy~**

Artemis leveled her bow at the head of another Adult. Clenching one hand tightly around the arrow she drew the string back and sucked in a deep breath. Right as she was about to loose the arrow the top of the head was joined with several others. She really wasn't in the position to be handling more than one Adult seeing as Roy hadn't come back. She lowered her aim as even more heads joined the group. Blinking she realized the movement of these heads were different. Hell usually she could see the faces of the Adults walking by over the tall fence that blocked the café she was holed up in.

Sliding down from her perch on the windowsill she bolted across the room and yanked down the ladder that lead to the roof. Scrambling up to the roof her suspicions were reignited as she heard voices mingle along with the heads that bobbed away. Biting her cheek she did what Roy warned her to never do, she left the café. Pulling herself up to the very top roof she saw the group that she had seen earlier. Four people, four kids!

She gave off an elated smile and bounded across to the edge of the roof. Stopping before she fell off she was quickly reminded that not every kid was to be trusted. She had allowed a group to come into the café once, while Roy was gone, and by the time her brother had gotten back Artemis had been beaten and all of their supplies had been stolen from them. There were even several Adults in the café, they had nearly gotten her too. Roy had forbidden her to talk to anyone else since the incident, but in all honestly, Artemis would have avoided any more kids had he not.

Frowning and realizing that she couldn't call over to the kids and offer them sanctuary or even help them out she began to scamper back towards the ladder. Just as she had reached the opening she felt something flash by her head. Swirling around she heard someone curse and a voice laugh,

"Good job Dick, you can't even hit one from this close?" Artemis attempted to focus on the group that was throwing, what she guessed to be rocks, at her.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Artemis shrieked at them when another small rock was chucked at her head, she carefully dodged the projectile and went up to the edge of the roof, sliding her bow off her back and setting an arrow up along the string and aiming it at the dark-haired boy who had a handful of rocks.

"Oh! Oh my God I'm sorry! We thought you were a Grown-up!" The dark haired boy yelled up at her.

"Well I'm not!" Artemis spat back at him, "And be quiet, this area isn't clear!" The boy clamped a hand over his mouth.

"Sorry about him, beautiful." A red head beside the other boy winked. He was pretty, Artemis had to admit that, probably about 17 years old, lucky bastard just escaped the sickness.

"Whatever." Artemis growled, turning away from them and carefully attempting to get to the exit again. The more she talked to these people the more that she'd want to help them, and she couldn't risk that.

"Hey wait!" The red-head called up again, "You're just gonna leave?" Artemis froze and turned back around to face the beautiful boy.

"Yup." She nodded at him, "See yah."

"Don't leave!" The only girl of the group called. She was a darker haired ginger with a fair complexion and pleading brown eyes. Artemis groaned and came back to the edge,

"What?" She snapped looking around to assure that her brother or any Adults, wouldn't sneak up on the group.

"Are you all alone?" She asked, "We can help you."

"No! I'm not alone, and we don't need your help!" The dark haired boy suddenly turned to the girl and hissed something at her, she muttered something back before pushing off the boy and looking back up at her,

"Really, we have food, water, shelter, warmth!" Artemis pursed her lips; warmth would be nice…all she and Roy had was a large old quilt that had been dragged through hell and back. Food also sounded amazing, they had an amazing stock at one point, but after the mugging they were scavenging up whatever was left in the surrounding area. Water sounded good to…clean water especially. Drinking from boiled toilet water wasn't the most pleasant thing Artemis had to undergo during this entire experience.

"No." She said back before she could change her mind, "We're fine." She said again,

"Hear that M'gann, she's fine!" The dark haired boy snapped, "We hardly have enough food for our people, don't be giving it away to strangers!" Artemis sighed, that's how things worked now, she supposed.

All of the Adults had been wiped out from some disease. It didn't affect anyone under the age of 18. Something about brain development, Roy had explained to her. Everyone it did affect though, turned into mindless flesh eating monsters. Artemis was told that they were zombies by several kids she had run into but she refused to believe that, they were just Adults to her. Now, with all the adults gone it was a kid-ruled world. Meaning no laws, no rules, it was dog-eat-dog and she liked it that way. As long as she had Roy, she'd be safe.

"No. Go away." Artemis grumbled sliding back down the roof.

"Wait! Don't go, he didn't mean it!" The girl squealed at her, only to be shushed by her acquaintances. Artemis ignored her pleads and slid back down into the café. Sliding her bow back onto her back she sat against the wall and sighed, Roy needed to get home soon, and he wouldn't be happy with a group of strangers outside their house.

"She's not coming." She heard them whisper amongst themselves. "Don't bother with her, she'll die like all the others." "Dick, how could you say that?" "I'm just being real with you! I know you don't wanna admit it M'gann but get whelmed! You can't save everyone!" She grit her teeth and crossed over to their small food supply. Three granola bars and a Gatorade…

"Please hurry up Roy." She whispered and snagged one of the granola bars unwrapping it she took a small nibble at the edge of the granola. This wouldn't hold her off. This was the only thing she'd eaten in the past two days. She chewed the bar slowly and then bit into it once again.

"Last chance!" She heard the red head holler at her.

"Just leave! You're calling the Adults!" She grumbled to herself and was about to go to the window when she heard the back door unlock. A grin spread across her face as she pounded down the stairs to the ground level to see her brother coming in.

But when she bolted down the stairs it wasn't Roy who came in, but the dark haired boy who she had heard was named Dick. Freezing she opened her mouth to protest his being there but instead drew her bow from her shoulder.

"Whoa!" Dick gasped holding up his hands to show he was friendly, "We're just here to help!" Artemis didn't lower the bow as Dick began to step forward. "Put it dow-" The boy was cut off in a shriek of pain as an arrow ripped through his arm, although not from Artemis.

"Roy!" She yelled and rushed over to the now bleeding boy in front of her, "What did you do?" Roy appeared from the doorway and stomped over to Dick, ripping the boy from Artemis's grasp he pinned him against the wall. "Stop!" She yelped. Dick winced and sputtered at the sudden contact with the wall. He scrambled to snag onto his bleeding arm and the shades that had at one point been firmly planted on his nose tumbled to the floor.

"What the _hell _are you doing here?" Roy hissed at the boy who was now struggling against Roy's grasp. Shockingly enough the seemingly senseless scrambles seemed to pay off as Dick got a good hold of Roy and managed to twist his arm away from his collar.

"Ble-bleeding." Dick hacked after landing on the floor with a thud. It was then when the other boy the group had been with ran in. He was tall with dark hair and furious looking blue eyes. Older brother, Artemis supposed.

"Get away from him!" He growled and plowed into Roy.

"Stop it!" Artemis growled drawing her bow and aiming it at the two. "Stop it or I'll shoot!" The much larger older brother of Dick froze first, his fist still clenched and only inches from Roy's nose. Roy on the other hand used this as an opportunity to lift his feet up and under the enormous boy's chest and to kick him off. "Roy!" Artemis snapped, her brother staggered to his feet and wiped at his bleeding mouth with his sleeve.

"What the hell are these people doing here?" Roy demanded going to stand over by his fuming sister,

"They're trying to help." Artemis scowled at him,

"Well they should leave, we don't need help."

"Welp…" Dick groaned from the flood, "We need fighters like you." He looked up at Roy through his wince and stumbled to his feet his hand still clenched around his arm.

"No." Was all Roy snapped as he turned away from the two. Artemis huffed, usually she would agree, but these guys looked like they could actually help them.

"Roy." Artemis warned, "I think we should give them a chance." She whispered, "I mean, they said they have food and water and shelter, we _need _that." Roy rolled his eyes and swung over to pick his bow up from the ground.

"No." He said again.

"I'm going whether you're going or not!" Artemis told him and went to go up stairs to grab her bag of valuables. Roy scoffed at her and followed her up, warning the two to stay there if they liked their balls where they were.

"You're full of shit!" Roy snapped at his sister who was frantically gathering up her belongings.

"Does it look like that Roy? No. I know you're doing your best to take care of me, but maybe that's not enough for both of us! We have two granola bars left Roy, we're going to _die_ if we don't go with them." Roy rolled his eyes in anger but didn't say anything, she was right.

"I can supply for you Artemis! I'll go out more! I'll go further! Scavenge more places!" Artemis whirled to face him,

"You mean go farther away so I don't know whether you're alive or dead longer? No thank you." She grumbled, "Listen, I know you might think it, but you aren't indestructible Roy! Remember the time you came home with your arm nearly broken? No? Maybe that's because you lost so much blood that you passed out and almost _died!_ Roy what if that happened further away, huh? I'd much rather you have someone with you when you go out on your little adventures, seeing as I'm apparently unfit to do so!" Artemis threw the last bit of clothes she had scattered around the room into her bag and turned to face her brother.

"Listen, Art, if you want to come, come! Obviously you can't handle yourself alone and…"

"Roy! That's not was this is about! This is about both of our survival. Now, stay or go those are your choices, because I'm gone." Roy groaned but went to pick up his belongings,

"If we get mugged, or raped, or whatever after we leave, I'm blaming you." He snapped at her strapping his bag onto his back.

"Go ahead." Artemis said in retort, a wide grin spread across her face.

Part 2

Artemis blinked up at the enormous building. It was an orphanage that was somehow still kept by the Kids. She glanced over at the group of Kids that had recruited her and Roy (she had learned their names were M'gann, Dick, Wally, and Conner on the walk over) and pointed at the facility,

"Is this it?" She asked, M'gann nodded and linked their arms,

"It's not much, but it's home." She grinned, "We have a lot of children to take care of in here, it has to be big." Roy suddenly stiffened,

"…how young?" He asked, Wally frowned at him,

"Some are infants others are older, do you have a problem with that?" Roy shrugged and didn't respond to the nearly threatening tone of Wally's voice. Artemis shot the two of them a look.

"Yeah! It's typically the girl's job to look after the young one's but some of the guys help out every once and a while." M'gann informed her and began walking Artemis into the gates that surrounded the building. "It's not to be sexist or anything! It's just, the guys are better fighters, us girls are more…tactical with our moves and tact, well, it doesn't work out there." M'gann added The make-shift gates creaked open as they approached, pulled open by several teenagers. Artemis nodded at them as a few began to swarm around the group.

"Who's she?" "She's pretty!" "Whoa, you found others?" "I thought we were the only ones left!" "You have nice arms!" "How long is your hair?!"

M'gann shushed all the rambling kids long enough to speak, "This is Artemis and Roy, we found them over by the café, now we're going to bring them up and get the situated, you guys get the gates closed… Hey Bart, were there any accidents?" She asked a smaller ginger boy, he looked up through a pair of goggles he was wearing,

"Nah, nothin' happened." He shrugged at her and went over to talk to Wally about something. Artemis smiled at this, they looked really similar.

"Are they brothers?" She asked M'gann once they had gotten out of the crowd. M'gann shook her head,

"No, something like cousins or Wally's like his uncle… I thought… Bart's grandfather is-was Wally's uncle." She informed her matter-of-factly,

"Kay…" Artemis nodded attempting to work out in her head how that worked, "So umm…what do you want me to do around here?" She asked as the two continued up the long path-way to the actual building,

"Hmm? Oh, well, are you good with kids?" M'gann asked pulling out a key from a bracelet around her wrist and unlocking the large double doors that led inside,

"Kinda." She bit her lips attempting to remember the last time she and a child had been within 20 feet of each other. Oh yeah, he was in the group of muggers. Artemis shivered at the memory but blew it off as she continued along the hallways. "And…shouldn't we wait for Roy?" She asked, M'gann looked behind her,

"Oh, I thought he was following us." Her lips pulled down into a thoughtful look "He'll catch up!" She smiled and the two had reached a large cluttered room full of sleeping bags and backpacks,

"This is where the girls sleep." She told her,

"All in this big room?" Artemis asked a bit worried about that,

"Yeah, see a lot of the little ones don't like to sleep alone, and personally it makes me feel safer." M'gann told her, "But we could find you an empty room if that's what you want! You and Roy could share it!" Artemis pondered this for a moment,

"I don't think Roy would do good in a room filled with a bunch of strangers." Artemis excused herself, seeing as she didn't find the idea of sleeping in an enormous room next to a bunch of people she hardly knew very appealing.

"That's alright!" M'gann clapped her hands together and began dragging Artemis back into the hallways, "We can find you an empty room! The other rooms are being used as storage and such, but there are still a few untouched rooms, I suppose a few of them even have beds left in them if you would like that." Artemis beamed at her,

"You mean sleeping on something other than the floor? That sounds like heaven right now." M'gann squealed and nodded at her,

"I thought you'd like that! Okay, I think this is one." She said, and pressed open the door, "The locks don't work very well, but I think you guys can make it work." Getting the door open the two stepped into the room. It was decently sized, there were two twin sized beds on either wall along with a dresser that had been ransacked and a bathroom shoved into the far corner. The kitchen had been torn apart, leaving a few scattered counters and appliances still attached to the walls.

"This will do perfectly, thank you." Artemis flashed a smile at her as Roy and Wally came up from behind the two girls.

"Hey beautiful, this is the room?" Wally asked and leaned against the doorpost. M'gann gave him a small "mmm hmm" and lead him away so the two new comers could get situated.

**A lot more action in the next chapter! And I would love some feedback to let me know what you guys think about the idea~ it's kind of out there. Any questions just lemme know! **

**And you guys have any couples you want to see? Tell me! **


	2. Fire Escapes

**Okay, a bit more action here! So, enjoy!**

"Are we going?" Wally hissed at the group behind him as an enormous group of Adults staggered passed their hiding spot. Wally, Dick, Tim and Conner were held back in a small alleyway, hiding behind a dumpster that shielded them from the horde.

"Do you _want _to die?" Dick demanded hoisting the two sharpened metal poles that he used as weapons back onto the ground as he lowered himself to the damp asphalt. "We're going to be here a while. Just sit quietly and hope they don't see us, I'll try and find another way around." Wally shot him a look, but knew it was best not to argue.

"Alright wait for this group to pass by-"Dick put a reassuring hand on Wally's shoulder and nodded at the other boys before beginning to crawl across the filthy ground, staying as close to the wall as possible and silently praying that the dumpster still made it impossible to see him scurrying away.

"Dick!" Wally swore after him reaching out to snag his arm as Dick stealthily wove around the small obstacles in front of him. Within seconds the small raven-haired boy was out of sight, leaving Wally swearing after him. "I hate it when he does that." Wally grumbled, Tim shrugged,

"I can go with him. I don't want him to be alone." He whispered quickly and then scrambled off to catch up with him. Wally huffed and sat back against the brick wall. Conner raised an eyebrow slightly but didn't say anything as he peered back over the dumpster to see where the Adults were.

"Crap." He swore and then scampered down, away from the dumpster. Wally turned to him and saw the panicked look smeared across his face.

"What?" He demanded, Conner simply pointed over his shoulder and held a finger up to his lips, but it was in vein as suddenly a pound smacked against the dumpster. A hand slithered its way around the edge and a mangled face soon joined it. Conner froze holding his breath and staying as close to the dumpster as he could. Wally glared at him, but made sure he didn't make a peep as the Adult began to stagger passed the dumpster in search of Conner.

Wally thought they were in the clear as the Adult began to stumble away from them, but it was just then that Dick and Tim dropped down from a fire escape right next to the creature. The two dark-haired boys instantly swirled around and saw the now furiously hungry Adult. Dick swore and took his two poles into his hands, Tim did the same with his singular make-shift staff.

The Adult let out a deep-throated growl and lunged for Tim, the boy lurched forward, slamming the blunt end of his staff into the Adult's neck. Still the Adult continued on, staggering forward and now groping at the pole in a mad attempt to get to Tim. Dick took the opportunity and slide underneath Tim's arm and slammed the sharp ends of his poles into the chest of the Adult. It hacked and turned onto Dick. Grabbing him by the shoulder and hoisting him up. Unclenching its jaw it dropped down so it's teeth was around the now frantic boy's shoulder. But before it could close its teeth Tim wedge his staff into the Adult's mouth and sent his spiraling away from Dick. The sickening sound of skin and bone breaking assaulted Dick's ears as he was carried along with the Adult. As the two tumbled to the ground more blood splattered onto Dick's face as the creature moaned and shriek at him in a mad attempt to bite him. Still Dick kept his distance from the Adult's mouth.

The Adult screeched as it flew back, landing on the ground with a thud. The group winced every time a shrill call was released from the decaying, bloodstained mouth of the Adult. Suddenly the call was answered by two more Adult's coming in from the open side of the alleyway. Wally spat and got his sledge hammer ready. Conner backed up slightly and drew his club up from the ground.

Conner, in all honesty had no use of the club other than battering the Adult's away and opening doors when Dick couldn't pick the locks. He was a man to use his fists, and his fists were deadly.

One woman Adult made a grab for Conner, but was met with the butt of his club being slugged into her jaw as she staggered forward. Conner waited until she stumbled back before pulling back the club once again and slamming it into the side of her head, causing and audible _crack _to assault their ears.

In the early days of the infection, this sound would have sent all of the boys to the ground vomiting from the _squelch_ that joined the ringing of cracking bone, but now they had all grown numb to the _squishes _and _snaps _that broke though the Adults once they were hit.

The woman Adult was down, her head split open with tinted dark blood oozing out of the cracks now on the side of her temple. But Conner had seen the damned things crawl back at him with their heads being held on by a thread, and didn't want a repeat. He pulled his foot up above her head and slammed it down. The force released a splatter of blood and gore to spurt out of the shattered skull of the Adult. Once he was content with the mess, Conner spun to assist Wally with his but found the red-head to be in a full out fight with a tall, nearly 200 pound Adult. Wally reared his sledge hammer back, but was blocked by a massive hand, clenching its decaying and cracked fingers around the blunt object. There was a moment of sheer panic in the younger boys eyes as the Adult snagged the sledge hammer away and began to storm towards him, he enormous legs kicking out under him like those of an infant just learning to walk. His knees buckled and shook beneath him as he reeled towards Wally, his bleeding and broken fingers out stretched to clasp around Wally's throat.

Conner decided it would be a good time to intervene and swung his bat towards the large monsters head with a grunt. The Adult spun around a moment too late at the club connected with flesh and bone and drug and enormous hole into the beasts face. The Adult dropped landing with a _squish _as he hit the floor, crimson seeping out from underneath him.

Wally looked up at Conner a relieved look clinging to his face as he laughed, "Thanks man" He told him, "Saved my hide!" Conner simply shrugged and went to slam his club once again into the head of the man and then to investigate the damage that the two bodies had done to his precious weapon.

His club was dear to him, something that he had felt a strong connection with since before all of the world had gone to hell. Well, in all reality, it was the leg of a table that he had grown so used to growing up. He would always choose the seat closest to it, he would always choose to hide behind that one when he and his father played hide-and-seek (an extremely rare occurrence, but still, it had happened once or twice) and it was with that leg that he had had to see the end of both his father and his step mother's life. It was with that leg that _he _had ended their lives.

He attempted to pull himself out of the memory as he looked at the now shaped piece of wood that had served him well many of times before investigating the cracks and dents that now joined the growing amount of blemishes that it held. Hell, it added character, he thought.

.

.

.

Dick huffed as the Adult finally fell, both him and Tim's poles lodge deeply into the skull of the creature.

"Kill the brain." Tim grumbled and yanked his spear out of the Adult's eye.

"Worst. Idea. Ever." Dick growled, seeing as ninety percent of his other shots would have killed a human, but of course, with these monsters one had to scramble the brain to get anything accomplished. The fuming boy tugged his poles out of the Adult's face and went to join up with Wally and Conner, again behind the dumpster.

"Alright, we gotta move. Dick, did you find anywhere to go from here?" Wally demanded in a hushed voice.

"Yeah, we can go by roof." Dick told him and pointed to the fire escape that we just above their heads.

"Any Adults?" Wally asked,

"None that I saw." Dick shrugged,

"Me either." Tim agreed and lowered himself onto the ground.

"They cracked my club." Conner grumbled and ran his fingers across the now split wood of the club, he'd have to either patch this one up, or finally switch to the other three legs he had gathered.

"I'll fix 'er up for you when we get home." Dick informed him and began to pull himself into a crouch, "Now, we gotta get up there without them noticing." He informed the group, "Because there are like fifty of them just walking around the street." Wally blinked, _fifty? _

"Since when was there so many?" He demanded, Dick shrugged,

"Honestly, I don't know, but all I know is that it took the four of us to bring down three of them, I don't wanna see our odds against 50." Tim chirped in, "We'd be zombie-chow for sure." Wally smacked his arm,

"They aren't zombies." He hissed at him. "They're just Adults." Tim rolled his eyes, deciding it would be best not to argue with the other boy. Honestly, he knew what they were, they were the walking dead. Regardless if Wally, M'gann, and half of the other kids they had wouldn't admit it, he would. They were reanimated corpses, which was basically the definition of the word '_zombie'_.

"Now are we going to go or not? Because we have company!" Dick snapped as another group of nearly five Adults began to swarm in from around the dumpster. Scrambling to his feet, Wally nodded and yanked down the ladder that led up to the fire escape. The metal creaked and moaned against the action, it had practically rusted permanently closed. But still, Wally was able to tug it down in a matter of seconds.

"Let's go!" He called and leapt up onto the rungs of the ladder, moving quickly so that the others could follow suit. Conner took up the rear just as the Adults got within grabbing range. He frowned and swung one of his legs at a swollen looking male Adult, the kick his him in the neck and caused him to fly backwards. Still Conner felt another Adult grab the foot that was still hoisting him up. They were coming in from the other side of the alley now.

Pursing his lips he decided to kick off his shoe. The hard boot landed in the face of the woman-Adult who pulled it off. She squeaked at the contact and let the boot drop to the floor. Conner took the brief moment of being free and scrambled up the rest of the way to the first level of the fire escape. He pulled up the ladder and bounded up the stairs after his comrades.

"Man what happened to your shoe?" Wally demanded as Conner joined them on the roof. Conner simply glared down at the Adults who were now scrambling to reach the ladder and shrugged,

"She liked my shoes." He said simply and leaned against a chimney, letting out a huff he looked over everyone else in the group,

"Everyone alright?" Wally asked,

"Yeah." Dick nodded,

"Fine." Tim agreed,

"Other than my foot being cold, fine." Conner added and Wally laughed,

"We need to stop those narrow escapes." He told the rest of the group, the other boys nodded in unison but didn't say anything as they sat against the roof panting.

.

.

.

Artemis was never really one to simply sit and watch as others waited upon her, but for whatever reason, everyone in this camp thought that she was the one person that needed the most tending to.

She was busing herself watching a few kids. They scurried around her room and attempted to entertain themselves the best they could in the enclosed space. Artemis smiled slightly. She hadn't seen a small child in a long while and it brought a memory of normalcy to her.

"Hi." A small girl smiled up at her, she had tangles of red hair, several splatters of freckles and a large gap between her teeth. Had adults been…around she knew they would have had that gap taken away with braces, but now, it would forever be there, just one large gap. The smile was wiped from Artemis' face. Regardless of the charm of the gap, it was just another reminder of their serious lack of medical knowledge now that everyone was gone.

"Hi sweetheart." Artemis forced the grin back onto her face, "Do you need something?" The little girl scuffed the toe of her dirty, broken shoe on the ground,

"You have really pretty hair." The girl said shyly. Artemis smiled and pulled the bottom-length hair over her shoulder and nodded,

"Thank you. Do you want to braid it?" The little girl's face lit up and she gave her a gapped smile and nodded. Artemis chuckled as the girl clambered up onto her lap and began twisting the long locks of golden hair around her fingers and began making little braids. Several other little ones soon joined her, each wanting to braid the long hair.

…

Roy came in to his room, tired and dirty from the long day of work in the small makeshift garden. He was fuming, seeing as none of these Neanderthals knew how to garden, how to plant the seeds, how to water them correctly without drowning them, how to not give them too much fertilizer. No wonder so many of these kids were starving. Roy grumbled to himself as he cracked open the door, only to freeze in his footsteps seeing a maze of children and toys lining the room. All surrounding Artemis whose hair was done up into many messy braids, all wrapped around her head.

"….why…" Roy stammered looking at the mess of their new room, "Why…" He demanded again when Artemis simply looked up at him and waved,

"The kid's room is getting fixed up." Artemis smiled when Roy didn't respond she continued, "They're barricading the windows and such." She put in, "For some extra protection." Roy nodded,

"Why are they _here_?"

"I offered, I don't see why this is a problem." Artemis shrugged back at him before going back to holding a few braids that she was being told to hang onto while even more braids were tangled into her hair.

"For how long?" Roy demanded attempting to wade his way through the sea of children. There were probably near 20 children in total.

"Not too long now." The blonde sniggered back at him, "Looks like you get to play army-man for a while." She grinned at him as the boys in the room surrounded him, glad to see another guy to play something other than tea-party, make-over, or dress-up with. Roy was uncomfortable with the kids to say in the least, but still, he allowed himself a few minutes of pretending to be the general of his newly found army.

.

.

.

Dick starred out the window for a while before turning to Wally and sending him a look. The red-head raised an eyebrow and scurried over to where his best friend was lounging.

"Hi." Wally said and planted himself next to the other boy.

"Hi." Dick responded back,

"What's on your mind?" Huffing, Dick leaned against the window sill in thought,

"Do you ever think it will be the same? You know, waking up every morning to your dad's face, or smelling breakfast ready, walking to the school bus in the morning, or ever getting that feeling back when you remember you forgot an assignment just as the teacher comes by to pick it up?" Wally frowned a bit at the question.

"I didn't live with my mom and dad." He admitted, "we didn't get along" He didn't necessarily want to admit he was beaten and abused by his parents in this life, he didn't see the need for connections to the past like those. "I lived with my aunt and uncle." He flashed back to the memories of his Aunt Iris preparing both him and Uncle Barry insane amounts of food, just as the two got home from an extremely long run. A smile graced his lips as he thought back. "But yeah, it's gonna be like that someday." He nodded. "Maybe not for us, but maybe, if we ever have kids, for them." Dick chuckled at the thought of having any kids and then instantly thought of the parameters around to illness.

"But, what if no one lives past eighteen?" Dick demanded, "What if, as soon as you hit that maturity marker, you just…die?" Wally stiffened,

"No. That's not gonna happen dude. We're immune!" Dick honestly wished he could believe this, but he still had that strong sense of doubt in the back of his mind, screaming at him that this wasn't the case, and frankly, that he only had about 4 more years to live, and Wally, only 2.

**REVIEW GUYS! It helps me move like a billion times faster, and whenever I get one I can usually crank out an few pages, if not an entire chapter! So review and let me know**

**Thoughts/concerns/questions**

**Requests for couples or side stories**

**Alright, this week was the last performance of the play I was in (which took my writing time away) and so expect more updates more often!**

**And a big thank you to everyone who has reviewed already~ **


	3. The Attic

**Alright! I have the intergoogles again so here you guys are (I am so sorry it's taken so long) **

Roy grumbled to himself as the last trickle of children scampered out of his room. He turned to Artemis with an agitated look plastered his face.

"I hate you." He said bluntly as he began to march himself towards his bed.

"You can't say you didn't have fun." Artemis poked at him as he whirled around and flung himself onto the old blankets.

"Mmm tired." He grumbled ignoring her statement and rolling over so he was face down in the mattress. Artemis planted herself next to him and placed a hand on his back, he didn't give her as much as a grunt of acknowledgement as she sat there with him. He simply took in a long deep breath into the flat pillow.

"Did we make the right choice?" She asked him in such a low voice she was practically asking herself. Roy didn't respond. "It's been so long since we've actually slept in a bed, huh?" She tried again but was only met with the soothing sound of light snores. Smiling slightly she patted his back and stood up. He liked it here, or at least he felt comfortable, otherwise he wouldn't have slept. She noted this looking at how calmly he was able to dream, no tossing and turning, just total unconsciousness. Artemis cracked a smile and walked over to her bed. Looking through a crack in one of her windows she guessed it was nearly one in the morning. How the children were able to stay up so late was beyond her, but she had a sinking feeling that it would be only the larger kids at breakfast the next morning.

She lowered herself down onto her own bed and sighed. The old mattress creaked and groaned under the sudden weight, but she still rest her head against the dirt-stained pillow and attempted to close her eyes.

After nearly ten minutes of simply laying there she couldn't bring herself to as much as doze off. She flung her legs off of the side of the bed and she snuck out of the room, sealing the door silently behind her. Most, if not all, of the children were asleep by this point, which left the hallways entirely empty. Artemis slowly trekked down the tile floors, the sounds of her feet padding against the ground was the only thing that broke the deafening silence. It was so strange for it to be this quiet. Normally the sounds of groans and shrieks rang out all night from Adults outside, but now, in this abandoned hallway she heard nothing.

It was strange to say in the least, being alone for what seemed to be the first time since here arrival at the orphanage. She liked the time to clear her head, but there was something that would make it better. After roaming around the ground floor of the building for a several minutes, Artemis found herself searching for a staircase, or a ladder, something that could possibly lead her up to the roof. A few more minutes and she found what she desired. Hidden in a closet, or what had appeared to be a closet, was a closed off staircase. This most likely led to the attic and the attic most likely led to the roof. Grinning she pulled a lighter out from her pocket, flicked it a few times, and then began to step into the room. Sealing the door behind her, she began to make the ascent up the stairs. The staircase was small and narrow, with old, but seemingly silent steps. She was glad that none of the wood creaked under her weight, although it certainly shuddered and threatened to collapse.

Before she knew it she had reached the top of the staircase. A small, wood door lead upwards into the attic. Smiling once again she pushed against it. The wood didn't budge and the smirk was instantly wiped from her face. She pushed against it once more, to no avail. She held the lighter up to the wood to see if there was anything blocking it. The sight of a hole in the wood instantly met her. She yelped as a blood-shot eye showed itself on the other end of the door. It was soon replaced by mangled and torn fingers scraping to get to the other side of the wood. Artemis swore and fumbled around her pockets for a knife of some sort to fend off the demon. She still wanted up there.

Artemis felt her fingers weave around the slick wood of an old pocket knife and with a smirk of victory she drew the blade up and sliced off the fingers that were pleading to get through the door and then she looked for a way to get the door open. A lock held it shut, along with several boards bolted across the door. Grumbling to herself she began to get to work at the screws holding the door shut.

Part 2

Wally was cold, wet, dirty, bloodied, and wanted a nap. It was past midnight, that much was for sure, and the group had just returned home. The house they had holed up in had become over-run with Adults faster then they could blink, thus they had to make the 10 mile trek back home, in the dark, being chased by Adults. Fun times.

"Get some rest guys. Oh and, Conner, find a new shoe." He instructed the group as they all began to settle down once they had gotten past the fence and into the orphanage. The boys gave muttered responses and went to their rooms, freezing and empty-handed.

"Damn it's cold." Wally grumbled, running a hand through his hair and shaking out as much of the cold water as he could. It was as he began walking through the hallway when he heard it. Small irritated grunts and swears. The voice was familiar, but still, who would be up this late unless they had a watch duty? Frowning he began to search for the source of the noise.

When he finally found what he presumed was the source he was surprised to see that it was the staircase. It was a small closet that they had found in the very beginnings of the event. It had been where the kids decided to keep Adults before they had the stomachs to kill them. They trapped nearly 5 of them in there and had yet to get around to killing them. It was a task he attempted to remember and deal with at some point, but running the entire operation of this orphanage was a very distracting job, and the Adults hadn't even come close to getting out.

_Please don't let anyone be in there! _He hissed to himself as he walked towards the door. Placing one hand on the doorknob he listened in, there was no need to wake up the Adults in there if he didn't have too.

Still, creaks and grunts and swears flowed out from the other end of the door. Grumbling to himself he pushed the door open and looked in. The first thing he saw was the 4 boards that had held that door shut were now on the staircase. The next thing he saw was the door being pushed open and slender legs being pulled up into the attic.

"Shit!" He shouted and dashed up the stairs as fast as his legs could manage. When he got to the top he groped for his sledgehammer but was met with nothing. He would have to do this hand to hand. Whoever this kid was, he would save them. Then kill them later for endangering everyone in this damn place.

Wally reached the top of the stairs, and without hesitation, hoisted himself up into the attic. The wood creaked under him and he was instantly greeted by a grotesque, gory face. He couldn't recognize the other kid on the defense against the three adults but it didn't matter, he needed to help them.

He turned to the Adult that had met him at the top of the stairwell and slammed his elbow into her chest cavity. The Adult staggered backwards, but was soon joined by another. Seeing as the kid was preoccupying the last of the Adults he turned to the others, _Time to be a hero_. He grumbled to himself and ran forward attempting to find a weapon. He scavenged in the few, very short, seconds that he had. Settling with a small wooden plank he saw on the ground, he reared up just as the Adult regained her ground.

The wooden handle met with one of the Adult's mouths hitting them and throwing them back against a dresser. Wally thrust out again, striking the other this time straight in the neck. He heard a sickening snap but still the Adult ran forward slamming into him and causing him to tumble over backwards. Soon enough he heard the sound of shattering bone and splitting flesh and looked up to see the other kid standing above him prying an old hunting knife from the neck of one of the Adults. They drew the weapon back and then turned and stabbed downward into the skull of the second Adult. Wally gapped as he saw the blade go straight into the skull, causing it to tumble down, and hopefully stay there for good.

"If we push them out the window do you think they'll land outside the wall?" A rougher female voice asked as a hand was offered down to Wally,

"I umm…er…" was all Wally could managed as he looked up and saw none other than Artemis, Wally scrambled to his feet without the aid and puffed out his chest, _I probably look like some feather-ruffled bird, but whatever, chicks dig that hole alpha-male thing. _He thought quickly.

"Hello?! Earth to ….ahh what was your name again?"

"Wallace…Wally…WAlly West!" _Damn it! No! My voice cracked!_ Wally internally groaned, now cursing at himself for not allowing the Adults to kill him. Wasn't this just the best day ever?

"Oh yeah, I'm-"

"Artemis!" Wally's voice chipped in, his voice being a little deeper then he thought it should be. But whatever, she probably didn't notice.

"Puberty?" She cackled at him, oh yes, she noticed.

"What?! No!" He scoffed at her brushing off his pants and then moving to the window to see the distance to the wall, which measured about five feet. _Can't throw them, but maybe we could_…

"Maybe we could build a bridge across using some ply wood or something." _Stupid woman, already thinking she knows everything. We'll get along just great! _Wally rolled his eyes, _regardless of how absolutely smokin' this girl is, she is a total know-it-all. _

"Just what I was thinking." Wally grumbled and brushed past her to attempt to find some wood. But, of course, before he could even find a piece that was longer than about two inches, or wasn't attached to something, she had found one. The board wass approximately seven feet long and wide enough so one of them could sit on it and drag the Adult's across while the other held it steady.

"Perfect." She smiled and Wally helped her move it to the window.

"So about the…." He gestured to the knife that had caused permanent damage to the face of several of the Adults laying dead on the floor.

"Oh, that. Well yeah, Roy kinda taught me a little bit of everything once things went to hell and I just happened to bring a knife up here. It was my Dad's before all of this started." She shrugged,

"Alrighty." Wally nodded, not wanting to get his man-card deducted anymore for saying something stupid.

"You're welcome." She finally sighed as they slid the board out the window and struggled to keep it upright as it traveled through the air towards the fence-line that separated them from the ravenous Adults that had followed them back and were now pounding on the outside gate in a vein attempt to get in. Yet, eventually the board was over, but Wally wasn't necessarily sure it was completely stable.

"Who do you want to go across?" Wally asked, Artemis raised an eyebrow and shrugged,

"I have no problems doing it." She got a determined look on her face and then waited while Wally grabbed the first of the bodies.

"They're heavy Art, is it cool if I call you that? Are you sure you want to do it?"

"Yeah sure, but what, you don't think I can handle it?" Artemis put her hands on her hips, but then reached out to accept the corpse as Wally offered it forward.

"I know you can handle it beautiful, I just don't wanna see you hurt yourself doing it is all. There's a lot of splinters on that wood." He lied. Honestly, he knew this girl was strong, but she wasn't the right bulk that he was. She needed to be big to pull these bodies across such a rickety bridge…on the other hand Wally was a good 140 pounds…she was probably only about 120, not that he was calling her fat or something! She was just curvy enough not to be less than that. So he stepped forward, taking the body back. "Just…hold the board, kay?" Artemis raised an eyebrow,

"It'll break under your combined weight." She said flatly. "I'm doing it." Wally puffed out his cheeks in some sort of argument, but decided against it as she held her hand out for the body.

"You better not hurt yourself."

"I can handle myself." Artemis laughed at him, snagging the body from the collar and slinging it onto the wood beam. She had maybe two feet to move around on, and Wally had been right about the splinters. She clambered on alongside the body and began nudging it forward as Wally held it as steady as he could manage. She got halfway across and gulped as she began to hear the sound of splitting wood. This had to move fast.

When she had reached the seventy five percent marker the body was already half way over the fence. She gave it a final shove and then crawled slowly back.

"Next." She said and let Wally slide the body, this time onto her lap. She gagged at the smell coming up from the rotting face just below hers, but she said nothing as she scooted across the beam on more time. She was met once again by the sound of splintering wood and shoved the body over the edge.

"How's the wood holding up?" Wally asked as Artemis came back, huffing and puffing and demanding the next body be handed to her.

"It's not." She told him and accepted the corpse onto her lap. She had to make this one quick. She scrambled as quickly and as carefully as she could. She reached the quarter way point and the wood began to visibly spit. She swore and slid a few more inches, splinters biting into her legs and rear as she did so. She finally heaved the body up over the edge of the fence and the wood gave an audible _crack _and gave out, sending Artemis tumbling down. She heard Wally swearing after her as she fell through the air, suddenly she felt the ground. It landed thickly on her back causing her to loose all the air in her lungs. Hacking and sputtering she rolled over onto her stomach and swore.

"Ow, ow, ow, ow, owww." She choked as she saw Wally leaping down from the window. The drop wasn't as far as it had looked from the board. Two stories, maybe. But still Artemis felt as though she had sent her lungs through a ringer and then broken her back in a twenty elephant stampede. Wally scrambled along the side of the building, going from window ledge to window ledge, trying to find loose bricks in the wall to leap to, each step he got closer, but Artemis never really saw him get to her. The tunnel vision began once he was halfway down, and she wasn't sure she could hold the sights at bay. Blackness began to fly around her eyes and she let them droop close with the final sight of Wally hitting the ground.

"Get up! Come one, please don't be dead. Please don't be dead!" Wally stammered as he pulled Artemis's limp head onto his lap. "Let's go, open your eyes! Come on! You can do it!" He prodded but still the girl lay unconscious in his lap. "Art! Art get up!" He demanded taking her shoulders and shaking them. This must have done something seeing as Artemis began to scrunch her forehead and let her eyes flicker open.

"Wha- ow." She moaned rolling over onto her side and vomiting "That sucked." She sputtered and wiped at her mouth.

"Can I just start off by saying you scarred the living hell out of me?" Wally said and pulled her up into a hug. Artemis stiffened, she had just met this guy, he had nearly killed her, and now he was hugging her? Hey, she didn't complain.

"You nearly killed me!" Artemis said back, halfway into his shoulder. Wally pulled back and let Artemis lay back down.

"You were the one that wanted to go!"

"Don't argue with me right now." She muttered and pressed her eyes closed, "Just kindly escort me to my room and I will kill you tomorrow." Wally nodded and helped Artemis stand up,

"Do you need any water?" He asked, Artemis waved a hand at him,

"'mm fine." She told him as he slung her arm over his shoulder. "Damn it!" She hissed and cringed at the pain. "Back." She told him, Wally nodded and removed the hand from his shoulders.

"I have an idea!" Wally whispered to her and knelt over and motioned for her to get onto his back, Artemis huffed in defiance but allowed the man to carry her as she stepped onto his back and slung her arms over his shoulders.

"So Artemis, how's your brain?" Wally asked,

"Pro'lly have a concussion." Artemis mumbled,

"Okay, what's your name?"

"Artemis." She slurred

"Full name."

"Artemis Lian Harper Crock." She told him irritably, Wally nodded and opened the door with his foot as they entered the building.

"Brother's name?"

"Roy."

"Age?"

"16." She mumbled, Wally shot himself a grin, _right on! Same age! _He thought to himself.

"Umm…"

"Can't really ask me much else, huh?" Artemis laughed hoarsely,

"I could think of something!" Wally chuckled once the had reached Artemis' room, "here we are ma'am." He beamed at her and set her down.

"Thank you. I'm gonna go…pass out again." She informed him and struggled to get the door open.

"Just make sure you make it to the bed." Wally instructed her,

"Yussah." She mumbled and waved at hand at him as she got the door open and slipped in. Wally waved to her and spun on his heel as she shut the door. She was pretty. Like _really _pretty. It was time to turn on the magical Wallace West charm.

Part 3

Wally walked back down the hallway and found the closet once again. He opened the door and stepped inside. Climbing up the old rickety stairs he tried to think of something that Artemis might have been trying to get up here to get. Obviously she couldn't have something that belonged to her stored away up there, so what was it?

He reached the top of the stairs and cracked open the door. It was quiet on the inside of the room, an eerie quiet. There was blood stains and parts of the bodies that had been up there, along with the snacks they had scavenged up. Wally was pretty sure that there was a dead cat in the corner. Still, he had a mission, he focused on searching through everything that was in the room and trying to find what Artemis was looking for.

The room was not cluttered to terribly much, and most everything was covered in white sheets, making Wally's job easier. There was spider webs galore, as well as dust and several other bugs and rodents scattering throughout the room. One small flash of fur caught his eye. He blinked, this one was much larger than the ones he had seen so far in the room.

There was another long flash of dirty brown fur and Wally moved closer. It was then that a large rat-looking creature leapt out at him. Wally yelped and tumbled back. When he realized he wasn't being mauled, and that he simply had an angry ferret biting onto the edge of his pant leg, he sat up. He moved his hand over to the ferret and pulled him up. The ferret obliged and seemed to pout as he was lifted into the air.

"Cool." Wally smirked and let the ferret go as he began writhing around in his clutches. But still the furry creature climbed up Wally and planted himself firmly onto Wally's shoulder. Wally pursed his lips and looked over. The ferret was perched on his shoulder, content at the spot, he had laid down and dug his claws into the fabric of Wally's shirt to hold himself on, "Sweet!" He commented, "Souvenir." He grinned and stood up, ferret hardly moved as he stood. "Alright little man, where is whatever Artemis lost?" He questioned and the ferret suddenly got up and slithered down him, "Wait!" Wally hissed quickly after him, but he was too slow as the ferret began running to the window. It was then that he grabbed something in the shadow in his mouth and scurried back. Wally crouched down to see what the ferret had brought him, "What's this?" He demanded and the ferret placed the knife that Artemis had earlier into his hand, "Huh…" Wally murmured and stuffed the item into his pocket before extending a hand for the ferret to climb up, "Wanna come back to the room with me? Or maybe get something to eat?" The ferret tapped the side off Wally's face twice. "Food?" He asked and the ferret bobbed his head, "Damn you're smart." Another bob of the head. Pleased with his new pet, Wally reached up and stroked the ferret's head as he began to make his way out of the room.

Part 4

"Whoa, man! What's that?" Dick demanded and scrambled up off his bed when Wally returned to the room.

"My new friend! I found him in the attic!" Wally beamed and continued holding up a bit of lettuce to the ferret as he nibbled at the edges. Dick froze and gapped up at him,

"What were you doing in the attic? I thought that area was supposed to be blocked off!" Dick demanded holding a hand out to accept the ferret. The animal went willingly, climbing across Wally's extended arm to Dick's.

"It's a long story." Wally shrugged, "Some mega babe was blonde enough to go up there. Had to save her." Dick raised a slender black eyebrow,

"_Mega babe?_" He questioned as the ferret ran across his back and leapt back onto Wally, "Who's that?" He asked,

"Artemis." Wally shrugged, Dick blinked attempting to remember the name and connect it to someone's face. When he finally managed he pursed his lips,

"As in the new girl?" He stammered, lightly placing a finger on his healing arm, "The one whose brother shot me?!" He frowned at him, "Disastrous choice dude, heavy on the dis." Wally rolled his eyes and plopped down on his bed,

"I know dude, but she's super hot. Plus she fights like a bad ass." Wally placed his hands over his eyes and let his newly acquired ferret scamper over him and lounge on top of his stomach, "Like, she could probably kick my ass." He said simply,

"You're way faster." Dick pointed out, Wally shrugged, and it was true that he was the fastest kid in the entire orphanage, hell he had been the fastest kid in the country at one point, he had earned medals and trophies galore when he was able to compete.

"True." Wally mused and moved one of his hands to lightly stroke the ferret's soft fur,

"Whatever. But dude, what're you gonna name it?" Dick grinned and leapt onto the bed next to Wally,

"What? Oh, the ferret? Dunno." Wally yawned and lifted the animal up to put him on his chest, "What's your name?" He asked it, the ferret bobbed a bit but didn't reply,

"Well, how about George?" Dick suggested, Wally frowned, and the ferret shook its head.

"Nah."

"Tom?"

"Nope."

"Well is it a boy or a girl?" Wally moved his hand away from his face and looked over at his raven haired companion,

"I dunno." Dick raised an eyebrow at him and lifted up the ferret, after examining it he put it back down,

"Boy." He said, "He's a boy." The ferret nodded a t him and went to curl back up on Wally's chest, the runner accepted the gesture and began petting him again, "Hey, what's the first thing you said when you found him?" Wally shrugged,

"Cool, I think." The red head opened one eye to look at his friend, didn't question his tactics,

"How about Cool?" Dick suggested, Wally pondered this for a while and shook his head,

"Whoa! Dude I got it!" He beamed at the ferret, "How's about Souvenir?" The ferret bobbed his head happily and Dick sat back, pleased at his handy work,

"Asterous dude, but just for the record, it was my idea." Wally stuck out his tongue at Dick, as did Souvenir.

"Whatever." He brushed a hand at him and began letting his eyes droop again, "What time is it?" He muttered, Dick frowned and looked down at his watch,

"Well my watch died at 11:52, and I think there's a tooth in it, but the clock…" He looked around for the small, battery-operated clock they kept in the room, "Saaaaays…" He continued as he scavenged. Neither of the boys were extremely tidy, and the combined mess made the room an extreme pig-sty, "3:25!" Dick called once he found the small, now cracked, clock underneath a pile of fabric that he had yet to give to Zatanna to sew up for him.

"Damn. Welp, I'm off to bed." Wally muttered and rolled over, Souvenir clambered onto his pillow next to his head and joined him in finally letting his eyes close and letting sleep overcome him almost instantly.

Part 5

Roy was surrounded. He had nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. The Adults were staggering towards him, their fleshless hands groping to break skin and tear flesh away from bone. Roy clutched his bow to his chest. The same bow that his father had given his when he was eight. The same bow he accidentally shot the window with. The same bow that he had killed Adult, after Adult with. The same bow that had protected his sister with, the sister that was now dead. Bleeding out beside him, her blonde hair matted with blood and strewn across the ground, with her mouth partially open as if calling out for him as the crimson leaked from between her thin, pale lips. He had heard her scream before she went down. The heart-wrenching, bloodcurdling screech that had brought his utmost attention to her, an adult had latched onto her neck, the woman's teeth biting into her soft skin and ripping. He couldn't force himself to remember any more of the details, other than knowing that three arrows were now implanted into the Adult's skull as she lay dead on the ground, with several of her 'companions' now digging into her skin and shoving the sweet, greasy, dirty flesh into their grimy mouths.

He couldn't take them, the others were too far and the Adults were too close. Without Artemis he was going to die. Poor girl, he _knew _that she shouldn't have come, but still, somehow they both managed to be pulled into everything. Forced to witness and suffer the 'raid' that the other children had gone out on.

But now, the Adults were so close. He swung his bow, catching one of the men on the jaw and sending him flying back into another smaller Adult causing the both of them to spiral backwards into the ground, but still it wasn't enough. Roy went to swing again and ended up missing, stumbling forward and into the reach of one mutilated woman's arms. He blinked, seeing her dark black hair, and hazy brown eyes. But, he had killed his mother! This couldn't be possible! She scraped and clutched onto him, pulling his shoulder in, into what seemed to be more of an embrace than an attempt at his life. Roy dropped his bow and the metal clattered to the ground. After several futile attempts to struggle he felt them, the teeth digging into his skin, right at the nape of his neck. He let a scream rip through his throat and dropped to the ground, right next to his sister. He crawled forward as the Adults tumbled down to get at him, and slipped his hand into Artemis'. Pulling her forward, he wrapped himself around her cold, motionless figure and waited, clenching his eyes shut and pushing his face into her soft, bloodied hair.

"Roy? Roy, what are you doing?" His sister's rough voice demanded,

"Shut up, you're dead." Roy mumbled, "Stop talking." He couldn't bare to have her be alive to suffer through this,

"What the Hell Roy?" Artemis said again, and he felt jabbing at this shoulder, he cracked his eye open to see a white pillow in front of his face, blinking out the sleep from his eyes a few times, released the pillow he had in a death grip, and rolled over to see Artemis standing over him with a plate of food in her hand. He sat up, utterly confused as to what was going on.

"Why aren't you dead?" He demanded, but accepted the food she offered him,

"Umm, I don't know. Did your assassins fail again or something?" She joked, poking him in the arm and then moving over to her bed, where her food was already finished. She grabbed the platter and began moving to the door, "You have another nightmare or something?" She asked, Roy shrugged and continued to eat the stale cereal in front of him. "What about this time?" Roy glared at her,

"Same thing at last time." He growled and ran a hand through his messy red hair, "Adults."

"Just Adults, or did something else happen? Why was I dead?"

"Fuck off Artemis, I don't want to talk about it, okay? I had a dream. That's it. My God woman, this isn't twenty questions!" Artemis grinned at him and offered to grab his bowl of cereal. Putting up a finger he tipped the lip of the bowl into his mouth and began chugging the milk.

Roy handed the bowl up to Artemis and she accepted it, putting it on her tray and she began walking out. "Hey, thanks!" Roy called after her, Artemis simply flipped him off and walked out of the room.

As she stepped she ran right into the bouncing redhead from the night before, but now, he had some furry little creature perched on top of his head like a little guard dog. It began crawling forward as it saw her,

"H-hey!" Wally said when Artemis rammed into him, Artemis blinked up at him and attempted to recover the plates that were fumbling around in her arms.

"Hi!" She said and curled her arms around the bowls, only to have Wally scoop them up away from her.

"How'd you sleep?" Wally asked and the two began to walk,

"Horribly," She laughed,

"How's the noggin?" He questioned,

"Actually not too terrible. Now, why the hell do you have a ferret on your head?" Artemis asked looking up at the fur-ball that was nesting in Wally's mess of red hair.

"What? Oh! Souvenir?" Wally lifted a hand up and let the creature crawl onto it, then handed it to Artemis. "I found him yesterday, along wiiith." He scrambled in his back pocket for something. Artemis gasped when he drew her pocket knife from the pocket. "Found this baby by the window, I think you dropped it when you set up the board and we just didn't notice it. Souvenir actually found it."

"Wait, you _named _him Souvenir?" Wally nodded,

"First thing I said when I found him," He puffed out his chest and watched as Souvenir began crawling up Artemis' arm and right down the front of her tank top. The blonde yelped as the ferret made himself comfortable and then poked his head out of the top.

"How charming." Artemis laughed and continued to walk down the hall, getting a few glances from passerby's. "Did you already eat, Wally?" She questioned, the redhead shook his head,

"Neither has Souvenir. Well, I mean he ate last night, but I don't think Dick's hair and a little lettuce counts." Artemis chuckled at his, she could imagine the boy's reaction to this, he looked like the type that liked his hair, a lot.

"You know ferrets are supposed to eat mea-"

"WALLY!" Wally grinned,

"Right on cue." Then, as if summoned by the mention of his name, Dick stormed down the hallways, shoving his way past other kids in a mad attempt to strangle his best friend.

"WALLACE YOU'RE DEAD!" He yelled at him, pointing at the mangled ends of his hair, and chewed up sunglasses.

"Look who's awake! Bye Art!" Wally waved to her, "Keep Souvenir safe!" With that, he was off, booking it down the hall with the fuming Dick, swearing and yelling after him. The ferret looked up at her with confused brown eyes,

"I guess I'm baby sitting." She shrugged, "Wanna go to the kids or to the garden?" Souvenir tapped the side of her face twice with his little paws, "Garden?" Artemis asked, Souvenir bobbed his head. "Alright." Artemis nodded and walked towards the outside, "You aren't going to run are you?" The ferret shook his head and burrowed further down into her shirt,

"Artemis!" M'gann's voice called over the buzz of the hallways. She flipped around to see the ginger running towards her with a pouting black-haired child, who also looked a _lot _like Dick. Big family. She noted and walked forward.

"Hi M'gann, what's up?" She asked the black haired child saw the ferret and pointed at it,

"M'orzz! I wanna see that." M'gann looked at Artemis. The blonde shrugged and then looked at the ferret,

"Wanna go see the kid?" She asked, the ferret hid in her shirt instantly. Sighing she shook her head. "Sorry kid." The boy pouted some more, but didn't say anything as Artemis turned to M'gann, "Whatcha need?"

"Oh, the guys are trying to put together a long-distance scavenger group and wanted to know if you or Roy wanted to come, I know Roy doesn't really want you going out, so do you mind asking him if he wants to-" Artemis put up a hand,

"I'll go. Just let me get my stuff, and don't tell Roy until I'm at least a mile away." M'gann blinked but nodded, "Who's going?"

"The usual, Conner, Dick, Wally, Tim, and I'm tagging along this time." M'gann smiled at her,

"And lemme guess, this little punk is taking up the front?" She pointed to the kid with a grin. M'gann let out a giggle and shook her head,

"No, he's in trouble. He needs to remember that putting a chicken in the girls sleep quarter is not an okay thing to do."

"I'm kind of glad I don't sleep there."

"I could put a chicken in your room." He grumbled as if he was trying to threaten her,

"My brother would eat it." The boy's face instantly fell,

"NO! Don't kill it!" he yelped at her,

"Damian here really likes animals." M'gann clarified, "he wont even eat any meat. We had to force him to drink milk even." Damian pouted,

"You aren't supposed to steal the cow's milk." He grumbled, "Those are for baby cows."

"Calves, and don't worry Damian, it thinks you are a baby cow so it's giving milk to you." Damian beamed at M'gann as she smiled at him,

"Really?" Artemis nodded to back her up,

"Yessir!" She smiled and patted him on the head,

"Whoa." He said, M'gann put a hand on his shoulder,

"Yup, now let's go see Kaldur, shall we? I think we should inform him of what you've been up to lately." Damian's face went pale,

"Who?" Artemis asked, M'gann looked at her, "Who's Kaldur?" She asked,

"He's kind of like the boss of this place." She smiled at her, "A really nice guy, he's the oldest out of all of us, well, probably the same age as Roy, but he was the one that pretty much founded this place and brought all the kids. He used to go out on raids with us, but he got hurt one time, and he just, can't do it anymore." M'gann sighed, "But he's still in charge." Artemis nodded,

"Mind if I come with, so you can introduce me?" M'gann nodded,

"That's a great idea! Come on!"

Part 6

Kaldur's room was on the far end of the orphanage, M'gann lead Artemis in as well as Damian,

"Kaldur!" M'gann called out into the room, "Kaldur'ahm, it's M'gann! I have Damian, and the new girl Artemis!"

"I'm coming!" A strong, deep voice responded from the other room, "Just take a seat." The three sat down in the few chairs that were scattered around the room before the sounds of rubber squeaking against the hard wood floor began to ring out through the room. Soon enough Kaldur appeared. He had dark skin, light hair, and serious eyes. He was a strongly built man with extremely toned upper arm muscles with tattoos lining them and extremely sculpted calves. Artemis couldn't help but stare though, at his twisted left leg. It appeared to be entirely snapped, and had healed in the position in the way that it had been broken. He was walking with a crutch, which explained the noise prior to his appearance.

"Hello." He nodded to the three of them and then settled down into a chair across from all of them, "I am Kaldur'ahm." He extended a hand out to Artemis with a smile,

"Artemis." She nodded at him accepting the large hand in her own; it was a strong grip, calloused and tight around her much smaller hand. She had expected the leader of this rag-tag group of children to be someone much more, energetic, she supposed, but the calm, put-together man in front of her simply didn't fit that bill, but she'd accept it. Besides, he was attractive too.

"I know." He nodded at her, "I also understand that you have a brother, Roy, wasn't it?" Artemis bobbed her head, and felt the ferret finally poke it's head out from between her cleavage, "and I can see that you have a little friend there as well." He extended a hand towards the creature, "May I?"

"Oh, yeah! Sure!" Artemis scooped the animal out from her shirt and allowed it to climb onto Kaldur's outstretched hand, the ferret instantly hissed and leapt back onto Artemis' lap and then began to climb back into her shirt. "Huh…" She whispered, Kaldur blinked and put his hand down,

"Animals have never been to fond of me." He informed her as if assuring her that it was alright.

"I'm sorry, umm but that was Souvenir, it's Wally's ferret." Kaldur nodded,

"Ah, Wallace. Yes, he seems like to type to take such an animal in." He smiled at the ferret as he popped his head out once again, as if he was the lookout, his eyes never leaving Kaldur.

"Well Kaldur'ahm,"

"You can just call me Kaldur." He informed her and then motioned for her to continue.

"I'd like to thank you for letting us stay here, and umm yes, if there is anything that you'll need us to do, I'm sure you could just ask me and Roy and we'll help you out the best we can!" Kaldur thanked her and then turned to Damian,

"Now, as for you Damian, what did you do _this _time?" Artemis chuckled at this and stood up, excusing herself, she was going to need to get ready if she was going on this raid. She made her way down the hall again, intent on finding Wally to return his ferret. If Dick hadn't killed him yet.

She entered the dining hall and scanned the room for the redhead in question. Finally she found Conner in the edge of the room, pushing around some eggs around on a plate.

"Hey Conner." Artemis said, walking up and standing next to his table with the ferret now climbing out of her shirt and perching on her shoulder, "Where's your brother and Wally?" She asked, Conner blinked,

"Brother?" He asked,

"Yeah, Dick." Artemis said, he was probably wondering which she was referring to.

"I don't have a brother." Artemis blushed,

"What? Oh! I'm sorry, you guys just look so much a like!" Artemis said now attempting to look around the room to not meet the suddenly cold, grey eyes that were looking up at her.

"It's fine, but if I tell you where they are, will you tell me where M'gann is?" Artemis raised an eyebrow,

"Yeah, that's fine, why do you want to know where M'gann is" She questioned, Conner shrugged and poked at his breakfast again,

"No reason. Just want to be sure she's ready for the trip." Conner said quickly, "But umm, they should be in their room."

"And where's that?" Artemis asked,

"Go to the boy's side, down the second hallway, it's the third door on the right." Conner told her and finally shoved a mouthful of eggs into his mouth,

"Oh and M'gann is in Kaldur's room, dealing with something Damian did." Artemis called over her shoulder as she began walking away, waving a hand towards Conner and leaving the room.

Artemis stepped back into the hallway and looked over towards Souvenir, "Hi." He nodded at her, "You're going to have to help me find Wally." She informed him, Souvenir bobbed up and down again and then scrambled down Artemis' front and onto the ground, leading the way for her, "You are one smart ferret." She commented, Souvenir looked over his shoulder and clicked at her happily, as if thanking her for the compliment. Artemis watched as the little legs kicked out from under him, pushing him forward at a slow walk, it was easy enough to keep up with him, even though Artemis knew Souvenir could easily out run her. The ferret simply marched in front of her, occasionally squeaking and chirping at her. The sight brought a smile to her lips, it seem ridiculous that this could be happening too her and still, there she was, following a ferret down the hallway.

Souvenir suddenly booked it to the right, running down a hallway and out of her sight. Artemis yelped and began sprinting after him, she just saw him bolting into a room, third door on the right. She slowed down, straightened herself out and then followed the ferret into the room, she knocked on the open door as she entered,

"Knock, knock." She called into the room,

"Hey Art!" Wally called from his bed. She came into the room and looked around, the space wasn't too terribly dirty, but what was on the floor and scattered throughout the area was probably all that the two boys that shared the room had. She noticed a couple bags filled with make shift weapons on the ground and rolled out on beds. Dick and Wally were both sitting on their own beds, in front of their own bag of weapons. Wally was investigating a large hammer, while Dick was running a small hunting knife over a metal pole to sharpen it.

"Hey Artemis." Dick waved a quick hand and went back to sharpening.

"M'gann told me I'm coming on a raid with you guys." Wally looked up, his eyes brightening,

"Really?" He demanded happily, "Sweet! I thought Roy wouldn't let you." Artemis shrugged,

"He will if he doesn't know I'm going." She sneered at him and Souvenir began running from between the two of them, "But I do suggest that Souvenir stays behind." She told Wally, Wally frowned,

"What, why?" He demanded,

"Just so something doesn't happen to him while we're out there, you just got him, don't loose him." Souvenir scrambled over to Wally's lap and stayed there quietly growling at Artemis, knowing that Wally wouldn't argue the point any farther.

Part 7:

"Looks like it might rain." Tim commented as the group walked down the paved streets of town. They had set off at around noon and had been walking for approximately two hours now. They only had gotten a few miles underneath their belt and had been hoping to make this an all-day trip, but it seemed that this was not going to happen if they got washed off of the streets. The leader of the group, Wally swore and looked over to where Tim was pointing.

"Alright guys, it looks like this is going to be a short run." Wally called, "let's just try and get to the store down on third and back. That's about two more miles," He instructed them and began to move in front of the diamond they had formed,

"We can't hole up somewhere?" Artemis questioned leaping up so she was right next to Wally. Wally turned to face her,

"Can't go anywhere that isn't secure." He informed her and continued to walk, "But don't worry, these raids usually go seamlessly." He winked, "it probably wont even rain, just being careful." He whispered back to her. She nodded and kept quiet. Seeing as, the louder they were, the more likely any Adults in the area would hear them.

So they walked, silently and in a diamond formation. Wally was in the front, Dick and Artemis on his flank, M'gann and Conner taking the sides and Tim watching the back. Tim liked the back. Now that he thought of it, he found that walking backwards was almost as natural as walking forward, you learned how to take careful steps, look over your shoulder when need be, and you learned to listen to the others in the group. He couldn't imagine any other place in the diamond feeling comfortable, he didn't like leading, making the split second decisions, so he followed, he made sure that where they left was safe, and that no one was following them. He used to hate the job, not being able to see where he was going, and he generally had the least amount of action when it came to fighting Adults,. This wasn't because he was the weakest fighter, not even close, if that were the face, M'gann or Wally or this new girl, Artemis would probably be in back, no it was because he knew the streets, knew the little hiding places that the Adults could come up from, and he could tell them weather patterns and prevent sneak attacks. This had come in extremely handy on a multitude of occasions.

"Tim." Conner hissed at him, "To the left, grey building, white trim, second story, watch that building, I think I saw movement." Tim gave him a grunt to show that he heard him and pulled out his long distance weapons, a small slingshot that was filled with heavy rocks. He loaded it and watched the window that he was directed to. The house seemed quiet for a while, but after he kept his gaze on it for about twenty seconds he saw the movement and swore.

"Animal." He called up to Wally, "and a lot of them." He gave the same directions that Conner had given him and Wally looked over his shoulder at the building. The group stopped and no one moved from their position as the scene was investigated,

"In pursuit or not?" Wally asked,

"They haven't seen us." Tim hissed up the line.

"Can you tell what they are?" Dick asked attempting to strain his neck around so he could see the house in question.

"Not cats or dogs, they're too big." Tim informed them and then scrambled for his binoculars and motioned for them to continue walking forward, he held up the cheap plastic to his eyes and looked through into the window, probably zoo animals again, or deer, there was a lot of those. He saw the rippling shoulder muscles first, then the light yellow fur and then the mane, "Crap, lions." He swore and looked up to the others over his shoulder, "Move, move, move!" He yelped as quietly as he could manage, "Lions!"

**I am so sorry I haven't updated but I hope that made up for it and the next chapter just needs to be edited so it shall be up in the next couple days! **

**SO, there are lions, now before ya'll get all "Why the balls is there lions?" They escaped from the zoo. It says so in there, but it is only briefly mentioned so I just wanted to point that out. **

**NOW REVIEW! IT MAKES ME A HAPPY CAMPER THAT LIKES TO POST MORE! **

**(Any questions/comments/concerns just shoot me a comment or a message and I'll be glad to help you out!) **

**AND FINALLY: Yes, there will be more people introduced, most everyone, if not everyone shall have a bit of a part within this. **


	4. Cuts and Bruises

**Okay! I actually forgot that I already had this chapter finished and forgot to post it…but I found it again, so…**

**Enjoy!**

"Lions!" He repeated just loud enough so that Wally could hear him.

Artemis froze, _lions?_ She grit her teeth and pushed forward along side of Wally, "How many?" She asked, Tim looked over at her and then back through the binoculars,

"One…two…three. At least three. One male, two females it looks. They're big to boot. They look well fed and now…" He added, "moving!" He snapped, "Go!" Wally nodded and broke into a sprint,

"Find somewhere to hide out!" M'gann instructed as the group attempted to keep up with Wally's pace. He wasn't running as fast as he could, they knew that, he could be a few blocks away by now if that was the case, but he didn't want to leave his troop behind, so he kept at a slower pace.

Soon enough Tim saw the first head poke out of the front door that was now several hundred feet away. The lions broke into a run after them. Tim cursed, spun around to face forward and gave those ahead of him a heads up on the situation. The others joined him in an array of colorful language as Wally finally reached where he had set his sites on. It was an old mall, heavy doors, and plenty of places to hide. He bolted forward in front of everyone to assure that the doors were unlocked. He reached the door, took the handle in his hand and pulled. The door shook, but didn't budge. Locked.

Wally got his sledgehammer in his trembling hands and slammed it against the glass of the door. It cracked but didn't shatter. He pulled the hammer back once again and yelled back at Tim, "Gimme some time!" He snapped and swung again, this time causing a chunk to come out of the window. He heard both Artemis and Tim give him a grunt of acknowledgement and then he heard the sound of weapons being loaded and loosed.

"Hurry up!" Dick hissed,

"It's a damn big door!" Wally snarled back at him and took one more swing at the glass. This time the entire door quivered. "On more." Wally whispered and slammed the hammer into it once again and the glass popped out of its frame and shattered onto the hard ground, "This'll have to do!" Wally called to the others and stepped back so that the others could slither through. M'gann went first without hesitation, and as soon as she did Wally heard the click of a flashlight and a squeak. Conner dove in without any time to spare. There was suddenly the sound of a scuffle, the others followed them in, flashlights on and weapons at the ready for whatever was in there.

"Art, go!" Wally said as the girl was about to loose her last arrow, she turned back and nodded at him, sliding into the hole, Tim followed shortly after, and then Wally.

"What happened?" He heard Conner question M'gann as the group started running through the mall in search of a safe place to hide. Wally motioned them all to go into the sporting goods store.

"Sorry, it was just a dummy." M'gann panted, "A dummy that now has a lot of holes in it." Conner let out a sigh of relief and they all continued bounding through the mall,

"Go to the Sports Authority!" Wally called over the commotion and the group gave him a call of acknowledgement. They reached the store within seconds and Conner kicked open the lock that held the gate down and then lifted the barrier between them and what might save them. Just as it got off the ground the lions were once again in sight, bounding towards them with scrapes and cuts from arrows and rocks that had hit them from Tim and Artemis' defense. The group all clambered in and Conner slammed the gate down just as the lions reached it.

"Can they open it?" Dick asked, searching for something to put through the lock,

"Dunno!" Wally responded and joined Conner in holding down the gate. It was then when he felt it. Skin was torn away from his arm by one of the over-grown cats. He yowled at the contact and still clutched the gate down,

"What happened?" Artemis demanded, scrambling to find more arrows for her bow.

"HELP!" Wally screamed through the tears that fought to come out of his eyes, Artemis blinked and noticed the crimson that was now dripping onto the tile floors, She quickly grabbed her last arrow and shot it right past Wally's head and into the skull of the male lion that had sliced open Wally's arm. The animal dropped, the arrow in its skull catching on one of the slits in the gate, holding the creature's head just off of the ground.

"Find me another arrow!" Artemis called to the rest of the group, M'gann ran towards her almost instantly with an armful of arrows, Artemis thanked her and shot two more arrows, taking down the last two lions. Wally and Conner stumbled back from the gate that was now splattered with the crimson leaking from Wally's arm and the craniums of the lions. The boy in question scrambled back, clutching a hand to his arm and laying back against the cool tile. Artemis leapt forward to him, taking his arm in her hand and removing his blood soaked fingers from the appendage.

"Owowowowowowow." Wally moaned clenching his eyes shut and tightening his other hand into a fist and slamming it down onto the ground, Artemis looked at the wound carefully, it was deep. The claw had broken through muscle and Wally was lucky it hadn't hit any bone. There were three long slashes along his arm from the claw, and then a forth, shorter one along side those. The skin around it fell in ribbon and Artemis gagged away the urge to pass out or throw up.

"Is anyone here a medic?" Artemis demanded, everyone shook their heads,

"Zatanna is the closest thing we have to a medic!" M'gann informed her, "So she doesn't come on raids with us!" Artemis swore and began putting pressure on the wound,

"Get me a bandage of some sort, fabric, something! And there should be some kind of first aid kit in here! Get it, open it, bring it here!" She silently thanked Wally, who lay moaning in her arms, for choosing this store to hide out in, "And be careful, you don't know if there are any Adults here!" The group members all chorused a call of understanding and spread out in the room. "You're going to be alright Wally, it's just a scratch, okay?" Artemis reassured him and pressed harder on to his arm,

"Ye-yeah, sure." He sputtered, sucking in a breath and opening his eyes slightly, "It just- it hurts really bad." Artemis smiled at him,

"Well you chose a good store to treat this, so pat yourself on the back." Wally looked at her through his squinted eyes,

"Rather not." He grumbled and closed his eyes again, Artemis chuckled a bit and suddenly there was an armful of gauze being handed to her by Dick.

"Here!" He said, "I can help you with anything you need, just tell me!" He pleaded, Artemis attempted to send him a reassuring look, but must've failed miserably because Dick's frown dropped even more.

"It'd be even better if you could find me a needle and thread." Artemis said as she began to tear off Wally's blood soaked and tattered sleeve to get a better handle on the wound. She ripped open the gauze and began wrapping it around Wally's arm the best that she could.

"Would they have that in here?" Dick asked, his eyes flashing from Wally to Artemis to Wally's arm.

"I don't know, Dick, please, just go look for it! Tell the other's to, too" Artemis sighed, attempting not to loose her patience.

Part 2:

"Needle and thread, needle and thread." M'gann sang to herself quietly as she searched through the store. She brushed her auburn hair out of her face and slid a lock under her headband as she continued scavenging for the required tools for Artemis.

"Find anything?" A deep voice asked, M'gann turned a bright pink and turned around to face Conner looking right along side of her,

"N-no." She stuttered and went back to looking, occasionally sending a look over at Conner's concentrating face. "Have you?" He shook his head in silence, "do you think there is going to be any in here?" She whispered, Conner shot her a look and shook his head again,

"No, but I know there is a craft store just down the way from here, we could run down and there's bound to be needle and thread in there." He told her, M'gann nodded at the idea.

"Alright, let's go." She agreed and the two began walking back towards the front of the store, "We're going to check the craft store a little bit away from here." M'gann told Artemis while she pulled one of her kitchen knives from her bag and clutched it in her hand, Artemis didn't as much as look at them as she grunted an 'okay'. M'gann wished her luck and Conner opened the gate for them. M'gann slid by the lions quickly and pulled the arrows out from their skulls and torsos where Artemis had hit them. There was also a few knifes and blades stabbed into the male's back. Meaning they had run ins with other kids before they found them, it also meant that those kids must've lost. She gulped and then slid the arrows back through the gate. Artemis didn't look up from Wally's wound as she told them her thanks and the two were on their way.

"Do you know how to get there?" Conner asked, flicking on his flashlight again and shining it through the pitch-black of the mall.

"No." M'gann told him and began looking around for a sign of some sort of sign to direct them to the store in question. There wasn't as much as a mall directory around them to show them the way. Along with that, the floor they were on was silent, making the two of them extremely nervous. M'gann felt herself drifting closer to Conner. The boy must've noticed because he raised an eyebrow and slid a reassuring hand onto her back,

"It's going to be alright." He assured her with a smile, she grinned back at him and continued to look around,

"I wish I had come here more." She muttered, "Maybe then I'd know the lay out a bit better." Conner sent her a look from the corner of his eye,

"You mean you didn't spend all your time here?" He questioned, she shook her head, "I thought you'd be one of those popular girls that always hung around the mall." M'gann chuckled,

"No. But if you asked me the layout of Barnes and Noble downtown I could tell you." She said sheepishly, "What about you? You weren't super popular?" Conner scoffed,

"No way." He almost seemed to laugh, "I was too quiet." M'gann could believe it,

"Strong, silent type?" She asked Conner shook his head,

"I'm not this big because all I did was pump weights like the other guys. My grandparents had a farm, and so I worked it with them and my Dad, it was the only time we really ever spent together, because he pretty much denied my existence most of the time." M'gann looked over at him as if asking him to explain what he meant, he sighed, "I wasn't supposed to happen." M'gann let out an 'ahhh' and looked around awkwardly, "So yeah, I was just the weird, quiet, country-boy."

"Well it looks like we're the same boat." She said shyly, brushing more hair from her face and into her hair band, she never thought Conner could ever be unpopular, ever. He was too pretty.

"Sh!" Conner suddenly hissed, and slammed M'gann onto the ground. She landed with a thud and Conner planted himself next to her and then scrambled under a bench, he pulled M'gann over with him and brought her close to his chest with his arms wrapped around her. M'gann blinked, and looked up at him, his eyes were focused on several pairs of feet that were now coming around a corner, the group was staggering and stumbling forward, two of the eight feet were missing shoes and several toes. While the others simply had worn holes into the shoes or no longer had what could be recognized as feet because of the shambled combination of fabric and flesh. M'gann almost gasped but Conner's hand clamped tightly around her mouth.

The feet began walking forward, towards the bench. M'gann quietly prayed that they would continue walking past, but they began to slow when they got about four feet away from them. Conner and M'gann both held their breath, but suddenly a mangled face appeared inches away from M'gann and the two acted, M'gann took her knife in her hand and punched, then sliced. The creature fell back for but a second as it's blood spurted from it's face, Conner swung upwards with both hands and pushed the bench up and into the four bodies that were around the bench,

"Run!" Conner yelled and kicked the bench once again into the Adults, causing them to stagger backwards, land on their rear and smash their heads onto the hard tile. The bench was shoved off and crashed on the ground with an ear-piercing clatter, there was an enormous screech of all the Adults within the mall as they heard the noise and began rushing towards it.

Conner swore and grabbed M'gann's hand, pulling her up and booked it down the mall. "There!" He veered towards the vitamin store and shoved the gate up. "Clear it!" He instructed M'gann as he went to secure the gate,

"Gotcha!" She called back to him and took a knife in either hand. She looked down the first isle and saw nothing. She turned the corner and went down the center isle and was met with a large Adult. He was lined with muscles and stood nearly six foot, if not taller. His bald head was partially scalped and he only had a portion of his lips left revealing rotting and black teeth, the rest of his face was half torn away revealing the muscle and bone beneath.

She gulped and stared up at him, as he ran forward. M'gann couldn't think as she reacted, leaping up she sent a kick into his chest and sent him spiraling to the down into one of the shelves. The stand broke and shattered to the ground with another loud clash, sending the Adult to the ground. M'gann took the opportunity and jumped up, she landed on the Adult and straddled the his arms to his side, attempting to get her knife at the ready so she could finish the fight before it got anymore loud or dangerous. He sneered and clacked his broken teeth at her, attempting to close them on some part of her flesh. Suddenly she felt a pressure pressing against her thighs and the man shoved them open and off him.

M'gann flew backwards into another shelf, but she didn't knock it over until the Adult slammed himself into her, she gasped at the sudden impact and fought to make sure his jaw was no where near skin. She jabbed her fingers into his eyes and gagged at the _squelch_ that they released when her nails dug into them. M'gann couldn't get her finger's loose from the spot and thrust the man's head backwards as he writhed around, attempting to get some of her soft flesh into his mouth.

She heard her name called several times from the gate as Conner continued making the gate as secure as he could possibly get it before the wave of Adults got to them, "I'm fine!" She panted at him and finally got her knife into her hand and stabbed it into the skull of the man again and again. Soon enough the writhing and wiggling stopped and the Adult was simply 200 pounds of dead weight.

She was being crushed under the man, she was blood soaked and exhausted, but otherwise unharmed, she turned to Conner who simply stood there, awestruck at the fight and she sent him a weak grin. "Help…" She gasped and attempted to get the body off, while struggling to pull her fingers free of the man's cornea. Conner lurched forward and shoved the man off, prying his head away from M'gann's hand. "Excuse me." She gasped and fell over on her hands and knees and vomited,

"Are you alright?" Conner demanded, pulling her hair from he face M'gann didn't respond with anymore than a groan and a thumbs up, "The gate's all secure, the best thing we can do now he get behind the counter and wait it out." M'gann nodded and lifted her head, wiping at her mouth.

"Alright." She muttered, and pulled herself up. She looked around, "If we didn't attract them here with all that." She gestured to the fallen shelves and toppled displays that the brawl had resulted in. Conner nodded and went over to her, sliding an arm under hers and helping her over to the desk. He saw on top of the desk was a box of free samples, he picked it up and settled down against the ground with it, next to M'gann who had planted herself down and was now holding her head between her knees, "Ugg that was horrible." She muttered and accepted the small taffy-like candy from him and popped it in her mouth, she chewed it a bit and swallowed, "At least this is getting the taste out of my mouth." M'gann tried to laugh at this but couldn't manage anything other than a hoarse chuckle. Conner nodded at her and grabbed a roll of paper towels that was kept behind the counter. "What are you doing with –" M'gann began as Conner ripped one of the sheets off and began wiping at her blood splattered face. M'gann flushed a deep red and starred up at Conner who was concentrating on the ruby splashes on her.

"You were amazing." Conner said, not looking into M'gann's bright brown eyes, "I don't think I could have finished that so quickly." He commented again,

"Thank you." She blushed again and reached upwards, taking Conner's hand in her own as it moved along her skin. Conner finally looked up into her eyes and smiled, moving a bit closer to her. M'gann closed the distance and they pressed their lips together. Conner moved his hand and brought M'gann even closer to him, deepening the kiss and pushing himself slightly back against the front counter.

Part 3:

"They're here." Conner grumbled as Adults began to stagger around the store, M'gann scrambled up and clasped a hand over her mouth, Conner did the same and the two went entirely silent as the Adults began to surround them. There was one exit that Conner could see, and that was blocked off by a flimsy gate and what appeared to be nearly 40 Adults. M'gann noticed this as well and sent him a frightened look as if pleading him to come up with some sort of solution to the Adults that were scraping down the gates. The girl suddenly got up onto her hands and knees and began searching through the desk to find some sort of escape mechanism. Failing, M'gann grabbed a pencil from the desk and began writing something on the floor.

_We can't take them. _She wrote and then looked up at the group that was now begging to get in, pressing themselves against the gate and attempting to break through. Several of them hand their fingers and what was left of their hand shoved through the hole.

**Not all of them. We could go out with a fight. **Conner suggested, although, he honestly didn't feel like dying tonight, especially not right after he had just gotten his first kiss.

_Well we have to get out another way then. _M'gann jotted down and then began looking around, now not caring whether or not the Adults saw her,

"Conner, you start putting stuff into your bag, medicines, food, energy bars, health stuff, anything." Conner nodded and unzipped his backpack and began crawling around the fallen stands. While M'gann began to think of a way out. She started to pace around the room, looking for another door, some back room, some way that she could escape. There was nothing! Nothing but locked cabinets and walls. It was then that she saw it. A large safe in the back of the room hidden by one of the stands, she tapped her finger against her lip and thought. Pulling the stand aside she saw that the safe was huge, probably about three feet by three feet, enough room for both her and Conner to cram themselves inside. Now all she had to think of was the way to get some sort of explosive. Or find another way out, seeing as she wasn't sure she wanted to be locked in a safe.

"In there!" Conner suddenly said from the ruins of the display stands. M'gann looked to where he was pointing, the back storeroom. She raised an eyebrow but suddenly realized that there were now several arms protruding from the gate as the Adults broke through.

They had about thirty seconds, if that, to get into that back room and have it blocked off. She nodded and booked it into the room. There went her explosives idea.

The two locked themselves inside of the back storage room just as the Adults broke through. They could hear the sound of the stumbling feet across the hard floors as well as the sound of bodies falling over and striking the ground as they tripped over the isles.

"We have to get out of here." M'gann began sobbing, coming to the realization that this was a horrible mistake, and no matter what, the two would not be able to fend off forty Adults.

"We're going to get out." Conner assured her and pulled her into his chest, regardless if he knew that they were going to die.

"Conner! A door!" M'gann smiled suddenly and pushed off of Conner's chest, pulling the large shelf out of the way and showing a large door. "Can it open?" She asked as she got the shelf the rest away out from in front of the door and Conner wiggled the door knob. It didn't budge. Without any hesitation he took a step back and slammed his foot into it, causing it to fall forward and open into the next store over.

"Run." Conner said and the two began to bolt from the store they had found themselves in, dancing around displays and racks of clothing.

"Grab some clothes for the kids!" She called to Conner as they booked it through the store, and while they ran they scooped clothing of all sizes off of the racks and of no particular types into their arms and continued to dash away from the zombies. "Craft store!" M'gann called as the two got out of their saving store. Conner nodded at her and booked it to the gate, dropping the clothes, throwing it open and then sliding the clothes inside,

"Run in, run out!" He called to her. She nodded and ran forward to the check out where small sewing kits sat hanging up nicely along the register, they each held several colors of thread, an array of needles, and small scissors to cut the thread with. She called this good and grabbed all of them sliding her bag over her shoulder and shoving both the clothes and the sewing kits inside and zipping it up. She slung it back over her arm and ran to the door,

"Come on!" She told Conner, who dropped the gate and sprinted to catch up with her. He had also shoved his clothes into his bag and was now attempting to get his club back into his hand, as they ran passed a few scattered Adults that were too slow to get to the vitamin store. But soon enough, even those that had reached it were now flooding out of the store Conner and M'gann had escaped from. The duo joined hands and continued to run as fast as they could possibly manage to get back to the sporting goods store.

The destination finally came into sight and they saw Dick at the door, ready next to the gate. When he saw then the black-haired boy threw up the gate and yelled something back to the others, M'gann and Conner slid under the gate and Dick let it shut behind them,

"We-we got it." M'gann panted and threw her backpack at Dick, who ripped it open and pulled out the first sewing kit he could find. "It wasn't-It wasn't a medical one, but it was –it was the best we could do." She told them as she leaned back against the cold tile.

"What happened to you guys?" Tim demanded, looking at M'gann's blood soaked appearance, she smirked at him and sat up a bit,

"Had a run in with the Adults." Conner muttered,

"We heard." Dick commented, what made them all wake up so suddenly? We just heard this crash and then a whole bunch of Adults just started running towards it. I'm guessing that would be you." Conner nodded,

"We were locked in Vitamin World." He informed them, "Had to escape through some little kid shop."

"Children's Place." M'gann corrected him, and motioned to the bundles of clothes that they had inside of their backpacks. "It was fun." She lied and crawled over to where Wally was lightheadedly falling in and out of consciousness,

"He's lost a lot of blood, thank God you guys got here when you did." Artemis commented, getting the sewing kit open with a steady hand and handing it over to M'gann, "Thread me a needle please, make the string the black, but make sure you thread it through a couple times so it's thick." M'gann nodded and picked out the largest needle, thinking that it would make things easier for Artemis. She threaded it through the small hole as Artemis began undoing the dressings on Wally's arm. "Now, this is gonna hurt." She told him, "We got him some pain killers, but those only do so much." She sighed, M'gann nodded attempting to think of what Conner had grabbed in the Vitamin place. She couldn't think of anything that might help him.

"Don't hurt me too bad, beautiful." Wally slurred and clenched his eyes shut, motioning for Dick to come over, Dick scrambled forward and let Wally take his hand in his own,

"You got this, dude." Dick grinned,

"I hate needles." Wally whimpered, "hate 'em, hate 'em, hate 'em." He sucked in a deep breath as Artemis began.

Artemis held the needle as steady as she could, taking Wally's wound into her steady hand and poking the needle through. She worked carefully, trying to sew as calmly, quickly, and carefully as she could. Suddenly Wally went limp in her arms,

"What the hell just happened?" She demanded, looking over at Dick who was gawking wide-eyed at the now unconscious Wally.

"I- I just told him it looked cool and then he looked and then…" He motioned over to him and then backed up slightly, "I'm just gonna leave before I kill him."

"Are you kidding me?" Artemis moaned and continued working, "He's fine with getting his arm split open, but pull up a needle and he faints!" she continued to grumble to herself as she sewed. "Get me the scissor." She called to M'gann, the freckled girl blinked up at her but then rustled through the hand-held bag for the mini scissors. Artemis accepted them and took them into her hand sliding her fingers through the small handles she began to attempt to cut the bloodied thread. She cut just above the knot she made at the end of the first cut.

"Three more to go, you're doing good, Wally. M'gann, can you get me a new needle and thread it!" She instructed M'gann and started cleaning the wound out the best she could. "Wally, are you awake?" She asked and was met with drooping green eyes,

"Sure, beautiful." He mumbled and looked away from the cut the best he could, focusing on Artemis' light brown eyes. "Has anyone every told you that you have pretty eyes." Wally smiled up at her, Artemis moved her gaze from the wound to Wally's face for a moment and grinned at him,

"Thank you." She then held out her hand for the needle again and went back to work on Wally's arm. "Yours are nicer though. I always liked green eyes." She commented, Wally beamed weakly,

"You can have them if you want, I like yours better. But, I can't really tell what color they are." He noted,

"Brown." She told him,

"No, no, they have like gold streaks in them. There's some green too." Wally reached up with his free hand, and placed it on her cheek.

"Really?" Artemis sounded unconvinced, "maybe you're rubbing off on me." Wally crinkled his nose at her with a sneer and then closed his eyes again,

"Are you almost done?" He asked as she switched out her needle and thread for the next cut.

"Going as fast as I can, but yes." She gave him a reassuring pat on the chest and then finished sewing up his arm. "Annd…" Artemis muttered, "We are done here!" She wiped a damp cloth along the wound and bandaged it back up. Wally attempted to pull himself and Artemis put her hand on his back to help him up,

"What time is it?" Wally asked,

"Around nine." Dick called back, from where he was hitting a dummy with a baseball bat. Wally ran a hand through his hair,

"Staying here tonight." He called to the others, there was a few grunts of acknowledgement, "Do we have any food or something to hold us through until morning?" Conner held up his back pack,

"We have energy bars." Wally flashed a thumbs up at him,

"Good job"! He called over to him, "Now the idea is, be as quiet as possible, and try and sleep. We'll take watch in shifts, two at a time, okay?"

"Me and Conner can take the first watch." M'gann told him, Wally nodded at her and went over to a winter jacket section. He picked two out and curled them up, making one into a pillow and the other into a blanket as he lowered himself to the ground again.

"We're taking some of these clothes." Dick commented and began stuffing his bag with a few before moving over to the children's section to grab a few pairs of clothes,

"You can fit more in if you roll them." Artemis told him, walking towards him and taking the shirt he was holding. "Like this," She sat down on the floor and folded the shirt long-ways in thirds and began to roll it. Dick let out an 'ahh' and continued handing clothes down to her, as did Tim.

"Here, I'll fold with you." Tim smiled at her, she gave him a 'thank you' and showed him how to roll the shirts and pants up. He watched her carefully and repeated all the steps on the clothes Dick was handing to him. "So…" Tim mumbled after a few minutes of silent work, "What's your story?" He asked, Artemis looked over at him with raised eyebrows,

"What do you mean?" Tim shrugged,

"You and your brother survived all by yourselves, right? Or at least that's what I heard." Tim looked awkwardly down at the clothes,

"That's true." Artemis nodded, "Well when it all started we were already kind of on our own, dad was never around, or he was in prison, mom was in a wheel chair so we were pretty self-sufficient." Tim nodded, urging her to go on, "wait, Tim, why do you care about all this." Tim flashed her a pair of white teeth,

"Helps the time fly by faster, and besides, the more you know someone the better you can trust them, and when you're out on a raid like this, trust is all we have." He told her with a shrug. Artemis blinked at him,

"Huh…" She pursed her lips in thought, "Good point." She nodded, "So well, I guess when it all happened we ran to the place we knew best and that was the café. It was two storied and we knew every in and out of that place. Roy always went out to find stuff, I stayed behind and held up fort. This is actually the first time I've come out of the house in months. Or, however long this thing has been going on."

"Only 67 days." Tim told her, "I've been keeping track." Artemis blinked at him and turned back to her folding.

"How?" She questioned, "When you're out on these runs don't you loose track." Tim shook his head and rolled up his sleeve, showing her small nicks in his arm,

"Those are to keep track when I'm gone. I used to use sharpie, but then I lost it." He shrugged and pushed his sleeve back down,

"Doesn't that hurt?" Artemis demanded,

"Nah. I mean, at first it was difficult. You aren't supposed to be able to inflict pain on yourself, there's like this little switch in your brain that prevents you from hurting yourself. But once you get past that it's quick and easy. It's not like they're scars or deep or something. I got it just under the skin. They heal in about a week or so."

"Then how do you know how many days it's been?" Artemis questioned looking over her own bare arms and trying to imagine the little nicks lining them,

"I record them at home, carve then into a wall."

"That's a good idea." She smiled at him, "But why don't you carve them into your pole or something when you're out on raids?"

"Poles are easy to loose. I've lost about five in the past 43 days. It's harder to loose an arm, although Wally seems to be bent on proving me wrong on that." He commented just as Wally came over to the two and planted himself down next to Artemis.

"Dick, how on Earth are we going to carry all of this?" Artemis demanded, throwing another bundle of clothes into the bag,

"With this," Dick said as he walked up with a large red wagon. The blond cracked a smile when she saw it,

"You guys think of everything." She laughed and began loading up the filled duffle bags into the wagon.

"I know." Dick winked and sat down next to Tim, "I think we've got as much as we can carry with the two wagons we got." Artemis nodded at this, "Best if everyone hit the hay before M'gann and Conner switch off with one of us." The others gave a yawn of agreement and all plopped down wherever they found room on the floor. Turning off their flashlights and the lanterns that had been lit around the room. Wally settled himself down and tried his best not to hit his hurt arm,

"How're the stitches holding up?" Artemis questioned and laid down next to him,

"Alright. It's kind of hard to move my arm, but I guess that makes sense." He whispered back.

"I'm sorry I couldn't fix it any better than that."

"Sorry I passed out on you," Wally reached over and poked her nose. Artemis crinkled it under his touch, "But thank you," He said and wrapped his arm around her, pulling her close to him, in a hug. Artemis wrapped her arm around him as well, careful that she didn't bump his other arm. Neither of the two moved as their eyes began fluttering shut. Artemis had her head laying on Wally's chest and Wally had his good arm wrapped around her waist and his bandaged one absentmindedly stroking her hair.

"Tim…Tim look." Dick hissed once he was sure that Wally and Artemis had fallen asleep, Tim cracked his eyes open to see what Dick was pointing to, he chuckled when he saw the two,

"Man I wish we had a camera." He cackled, Dick nodded and leaned back against Tim's arm, "Hey, bro, do you think Bruce is still out there?" He said after a long while, Dick looked over at him,

"Maybe…" He whispered, "He was always one to be able to do the impossible, wasn't he?" Tim nodded,

"What about Jason?" Tim mused, sleep no longer a thought in his head,

"You know Jason's gone." Dick murmured, "He fell in that lake, there was no way he could have survived that." Approximately a week after the entire endeavor the three adopted Wayne children, as well as the only actual child of the billionaire Bruce Wayne, had thought it would have been a good idea to head to the mountains on the terms that, there was less people that way. They had made their way halfway up one of the only mountains in Gotham with their brother Jason in the lead. Everyday was a long walk, and every night was sleepless camping, watching the trees and paths for Adults. Every night there would be nothing. They assumed all was clear. That was until they were crossing an old bridge, over the river that was nearly seventy feet bellow them and an Adult began plowing his way through. Tim had reached for his sling shot, attempting to load it as the Adult was joined with others and began running through the bridge. Jason had drawn the steel baseball bat he kept as a weapon. Tim was too slow, the Adult had reached Jason and was now forcing him back against the thin rope that held up the bridge. Jason had screamed for them to get off the bridge before it collapsed, and Dick had ushered Damian and Tim away from the bridge while Jason fought of the Adults. He was pushed back, up and over the rope within seconds of Dick attempting to go back and help him, Dick lurched forward and scrambled to grab his hand, ignoring the scrapes and claws from the Adults he tripped on the way, but Jason was gone. Splashing into the river. Dick destroyed the other Adults in seconds, tearing through them with the two poles he had at his side and throwing them up and over the rope.

They waited for Jason. Waited and watched the river, hoping his head would come up from the waters.

It never did.

Dick blinked away the memory and closed his eyes, still resting against Tim's back. This was one brother he'd never let go. Damian either, he hated having the little one out of his sight, but it seemed that at this point that was unavoidable.

Part 4:

Zatanna looked out over the vast stretch of city and bit the inside of her cheek. She had spent all day treating boo-boos and owwies with the little kids, and Dick and the others were out there risking their lives. Along with that there was dark, menacing storm clouds floating towards the city. She frowned, why couldn't she be out there with them? She was sure that there was something she could do out there. Help someone, fix some boo-boos out there for once. But no, she was stuck on the inside, never allowed to leave the walls in fear that their one and only medic might be lost. She was hardly able to leave the building.

Suddenly a door opened up behind here. She turned and raised her eyebrow to see an unfamiliar red-head walk in, he had sunglasses up on his nose and a mean scowl plastered to his face. Still Zatanna smiled at him and stood,

"Hello." She greeted him, "Can I help you with something?" She moved over to an old desk that she had claimed as her own.

"Where's my sister?" He growled, not sitting in the chairs in front of the desk even as Zatanna motioned to them,

"Who? Oh! You must be Roy, the new guy! I'm sorry, but I don't know, what's her name?" She asked and flipped open the notebook that held all the check-in, check-out logs of the orphanage,

"Artemis." He snapped, crossing his arms and glaring,

"She left earlier today." She said, "Went with the scavenger party it looks like." Roy's jaw clenched shut at the news,

"She…left?" He yelled, Zatanna nodded, crossing her arms and resting her elbows against the desk,

"Yup. But I wouldn't suggest going out there after her. She went on a long distance raid, meaning they're probably long gone, yup, wont be back until tomorrow or the next day. We send a search party after the third day." Roy gapped at this,

"I'm leaving, check me out, or whatever the hell you do here." He grumbled, Zatanna sighed and scribbled down his name and the time,

"Alright, I'll let you go." Roy went to turn around, "On one condition." He froze and looked back over his shoulder,

"Excuse me?"

"I want to come."

"_Excuse me?!" _

"I haven't been out of this place since all of this started, I want out for a little bit. Besides, I'm a medic and a damn good fighter, if you get in a jam you'll want back up." Roy sighed but nodded,

"Fine, I'll sneak you out or whatever the hell you want me to do. But, you gotta follow my lead." Zatanna shrugged,

"I'm cool with that. I just hope you know your way around the streets at night." Roy nodded again,

"Born and raised." With that he left the room, "be ready in 10." He called back to her and was gone. Zatanna let out a quick cheer and went to go pack what she would need.

She got to the back room and scribbled down a note,

_Barbara, I'll be out for a while. Don't let anyone else know. P.S. thanks for covering me, I owe you one big time. _

_ - Zatanna _

She finished writing the note. Barbara was her part-time helper with the medicine. She was getting good with the medicine names, what they did, and how to use them, but unlike Zatanna she hadn't been raised by two surgeons that gave her only medical books to read for fun, so she hadn't gotten the training Zatanna had. Still, whatever happened when she was gone Barbara would be able to handle. There was never really anything horribly wrong with the kids. An upset tummy, headache, sniffles, cuts, bruises; Barbara could handle it. Zatanna reassured herself that she could do this and packed a few medicines into her pack as well as the weapon she hid behind the cabinets. It was an old rifle, still had a few rounds in it too. She picked up the gun and placed it in her bag. That was for emergencies only, but she wanted to be prepared for the worst out there. She grabbed a hatchet that was supposed to be for amputations (thank God she had yet to have to use it) and laced it through her belt. She was ready just as Roy came back in ready to go with backpack and a bow and arrow.

Roy didn't know this building too well, but he was able to follow Zatanna to find secret exits without having to go through the gate in front. There was a small door in the kitchen corner that Zatanna unlocked and the two slid through.

"We'll have to jump the fence." Zatanna hummed at him, as they slipped outside and shut the door behind them. Roy nodded and ran up to the fence, cupping his hands so Zatanna could step onto them. She did as she was instructed and leapt up onto the hands and clambered up onto the fence,

"Come on!" She motioned, holding her hand down so that Roy could grab onto it and hoist himself up. The two flew over the other side of the fence and landed on their backs on the grass. Zatanna coughed a bit and pulled herself up, Roy did the same and began looking around,

"Do you know where they were supposed to go?" He asked looking at the streets he had around him.

"Supposed to be going downtown." Roy blinked at her,

"Are they _stupid? _Downtown is horrible! Not a clear building in it!"

"You've been there?" Zatanna asked as the two began walking,

"Almost died there!" Roy scoffed back at her, "It's not safe, we have to get there soon, otherwise I wont have a sister and you wont have a boyfriend." Zatanna's eyes widened,

"How'd you know-" Zatanna stammered,

"Educated guess." Roy sneered.

**So! Zatanna and Roy are going off in search of our little stranded group. Hopefully something good will come out of that.**

**Relationships are going places! Your opinion on that?**

**Any questions, comments, concerns just leave me a review and I'll get back to you!**

**REVIEW! LEMME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK! **

**Bye, till next time bros! **


End file.
